Archive for November 9th, 2008
Split Over Russia Grows in Europe
Russia sent President-elect Barack Obama a message this week when it threatened to “neutralize” the proposed U.S. missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. But analysts said the tough talk from Moscow had another aim as well: to exploit a festering divide within Europe.
Many Eastern European countries have become increasingly alarmed over what they consider Russia’s aggressive attempts to re-create a sphere of influence over satellite states of the former Soviet Union. Such concerns soared after Russia sent troops into Georgia in August, sparking a brief war.
The worries worsened Wednesday when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the Kremlin would move short-range missiles into Kaliningrad, a sliver of Russian territory on the Baltic Sea bordering Poland and Lithuania, if the United States proceeds to base parts of a missile-defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus called the Russian threat “beyond comprehension.”
In contrast, Germany, France and other countries in Western Europe play down any security risks posed by Moscow and instead see Russia foremost as a lucrative — if unpredictable — trading partner. These countries, which former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld once derided as “Old Europe,” generally consider the U.S. missile defense project to be an unnecessary irritant.
via Split Over Russia Grows in Europe – washingtonpost.com
Background of this story here.
Indonesia executes 3 in Bali nightclub bombings
Indonesia executed three Islamic militants Saturday for helping plan and carry out the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.
Imam Samudra, 38, and brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim, 47, and Ali Ghufron, 48, were executed several miles from their high security prison on Nusakambangan island, said Qadar Faisal, one of their attorneys.
Their bodies will be taken by helicopter to their home villages for burial, he said.
The Oct. 12, 2002 twin nightclub attacks — allegedly funded by al-Qaida and carried out by members of the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah — thrust the world’s most populous Muslim nation onto the front lines in the war on terror.
The three never expressed remorse, saying the bombings were meant to punish the U.S. and its Western allies for alleged atrocities in Afghanistan and elsewhere. They even taunted relatives of victims at their trials five years ago.
via Indonesia executes 3 in Bali nightclub bombings – Yahoo! News
Restitution tops $4M in Midwest eco-terrorism case
An environmental activist who committed arson at Michigan State University in 1999 is now ordered to pay more than $4 million in restitution, a federal judge decided Monday.
Frank Ambrose, 33, of Detroit was sentenced Oct. 20 to nine years in federal prison. He and Marie Mason committed arson at MSU’s Agriculture Hall on New Year’s Eve 1999 to protest genetic-crop research in the name of the radical Earth Liberation Front.
They also admitted to tree spikings in Indiana and fires at four homes under construction in the Detroit area.
via The Associated Press: Restitution tops $4M in Midwest eco-terrorism case
well, this is truly good: you can maintain any ideas, as long as you don’t force others to have them with terror…
